BY MIKE ITALIE
VALDOSTA, Georgia - Hundreds of protesters marked the
anniversary of the police killing of Willie James Williams in
this southern Georgia city with a September 2 rally and a
September 4 march to the Lowndes County jail.
The family of Williams and other working people in the area continue to participate in protests demanding justice, rejecting police claims that the Black man's death was accidental, the result of a fall. Katie Williams, his sister- in-law, a school bus driver and former textile mill worker, was one of several family members who attended the September 2 rally and commemorative service at the St. James Missionary Baptist Church. "I think it stinks," she said about the police story. "They're saying nothing happened, they're trying to cover up their tracks. Everybody knows that you don't just fall and die. And when I asked a question of the District Attorney at a hearing, he just said, `That's for the grand jury to answer.'"
A coroner's inquest ruled the death "accidental" on Dec. 2, 1998, with the three jury members who were white outvoting two Blacks. On December 18 a grand jury voted not to indict any police officers involved.
Over the last year the People's Tribunal of Valdosta has organized numerous protests - one as large as 2,000 in this city of 42,000. Opponents of police brutality continue to press their demand for charges to be filed against the cops who killed Williams.
Police violence has become a topic of debate in workplaces throughout the area. Keith Marshell, a 32-year-old assistant machine operator at Southern Bag and Paper, pointed out that some of his co-workers say, " `Let bygones be bygones.' But someone was killed. Someone was consciously beating this guy. There needs to be a continuous effort until justice is done. This is a humanitarian issue, like stopping the death penalty." Three workers from Marshell's plant joined the September 4 march.
This fight has become a rallying point for the workers, farmers, and youth in Lowndes County. Willie Head, a leader of the People's Tribunal as well as of farmers fighting to hold onto their land, pointed out that this struggle against police brutality "was the forming issue for the People's Tribunal. We started with the churches, but only a few ministers joined. So then we handed out flyers everywhere - in apartment buildings, in parking lots, across the counter to people working at Taco Bell." Many of the small businesses in the Black community here put rally flyers in their store windows and on their counters.
Video shows cop beating
Ari Santos, a leader of the People's Tribunal and a
professor of philosophy at Valdosta State University (VSU),
pointed out that arresting officer Kevin Farmer claimed that
Williams had tried to escape and in the scuffle had received a
cut lip. Then the Georgia Bureau of Investigation reported
that Williams, in handcuffs, reached for Farmer's gun. Finally
the Coroner's Inquest claimed that Williams suffered only
minor injuries.
Santos unraveled this police cover-up with a slide show of Williams' injuries from the medical examiner's office, and videos taken from police cruisers of Williams's Sept. 1, 1998, arrest. "I've heard that facts speak for themselves. But the facts can only speak for themselves if the facts are allowed to speak," Santos declared. The medical examiner's report and photos listed a total of 32 injuries all over his body, including three separated ribs, two teeth knocked out, and ruled the cause of death "blunt force head trauma," he said.
Williams was arrested by Farmer on a traffic violation, and taken to jail on other charges from a computer check. The police videos were obtained by William's family attorney Joseph Wiley, law partner of Johnnie Cochran. Videos from the camera in Farmer's car and from the camera in the second police cruiser that arrived on the scene show no escape attempt by Williams, nor a grab for the officer's gun, but do show the cops using their flashlights to beat Williams down.
Tina Lott is one of many students from VSU who attended the rallies. Lott, 22, is an activist in the campus anti-racist group HOPE, and has been following the attacks on affirmative action around the country. Opponents of affirmative action "say they are against all discrimination," she stated, "but they really think Black folks aren't smart enough. Then I was watching the issue of police brutality, and I've always had the sneaking suspicion that something wasn't right about the police story that `he fell.' Then I heard about all the injuries. The airing of the police video tape is a vindication. Sheriff Ashley Paulk should resign for not trying to get to the bottom of this, and charges should be filed against the police."
The videotapes and Medical Examiner's photos were released only after a year of struggle to keep the issue alive, noted Reverend Floyd Rose, president of the People's Tribunal, as he called on all in attendance to come out to the September 4 march to the Lowndes County jail.
March for justice
The September 4 March for Justice began at the site on
South Lee St. where Williams was arrested one year ago. As the
crowd marched to the Lowndes County Correctional Center, it
swelled to 250 people. Tim Bentley, a 28-year-old forklift
driver, said he was there to "make sure everyone gets treated
equal. People in high office are trying to push this under the
rug, to make their position safer. At work people say
everybody needs to get out and show support, and I see two or
three out here already."
The march ended in a field a hundred yards from the jail. John Cole Vodicka, a leader of the Prison and Jail Project in Americus, Georgia, told the marchers he had "come across case after case just like what happened to Willie James Williams. Law enforcement is here to abuse, arrest, check up on, intimidate, and sometimes to kill." The People's Tribunal has denounced the overall treatment of prisoners at the Lowndes County jail. It charges that at least two other men have died under suspicious circumstances, that there are beatings at the jail, and that in recent months as many as 20 Black guards have been fired or forced to resign.
Rose announced that he and those who wished to join him would march directly to the jail to conclude the rally. As soon as Rose and the majority of protesters turned to walk toward the jail entrance, several cops swung their cruisers into the parking lot, jumped out, and blocked the marchers' way.
After a brief standoff between the sheriff and leaders of the People's Tribunal, and when proof was given that a permit had been obtained for the action, the police stepped out of the way. The marchers proceeded to the steps of the jail to pray and to express satisfaction in the victories won. One protester who had been taken away in handcuffs was quickly released and rejoined the others. At the close of the final rally, prisoners from their cells cheered the marchers, who waved back in return.
At the end of the day's events, Willie Head said, "This is the new birth of the civil rights movement in this area. The old one didn't come this far south in Georgia; it didn't come to Lowndes County. This fight is giving people a voice. People had wanted to speak out about things like this but were scared. I have been involved in farm protests for three years - in Mississippi, Kentucky, other places. So now I have to get involved in more things. Willie James Williams is not going to die in vain. We're going to get charges against the police who killed him."
Mike Italie is a member of Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees Local 1997.